Planned Parenthood and Baby Parts: How Did We Get Here? The Racial Eugenic Past of Planned Parenthood, Part 2

In the first installment of my two-part blog series, I discussed Margaret Sanger’s radical past, specifically how she embraced eugenics to cleanse the world of “inferior” races.

In this continuing piece, I connect Sanger’s turn-of-the-century tactics to rid the world of “human weeds” with Planned Parenthood’s rabid allegiance to abortion on demand.

The gruesome Planned Parenthood videos have not only exposed the abortion giant for harvesting preborn baby parts, but they’ve also shined a light on the organization’s dark history.

Founded in 1916 by Margaret Sanger and two other women, Planned Parenthood continues to carry out Sanger’s depraved philosophy by targeting impoverished minority communities to this day.

Sanger coined the term “birth control” and went on to start an organization known as the American Birth Control League in 1923. This organization was eventually renamed Planned Parenthood. Indeed, Planned Parenthood was started by a social radical who was a tireless champion of eugenics. She wanted to rid society of “human weeds,” and in 1925 she wrote, “We must clear the way for a better world; we must cultivate our garden.”

In my book, Abortion: The Ultimate Exploitation of Women, I provide extensive background on Sanger’s belief that the human race needs “improving” through strategic breeding.

Here’s a brief excerpt from my book:

“The most urgent problem,” according to Sanger, “is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.”

And coercion, she made clear, was a tool to be considered: “Possibly drastic and Spartan methods may be forced upon American society if it continues complacently to encourage the chance and chaotic breeding that has resulted from our stupid, cruel sentimentalism.”

As I then explain further, Sanger not only promoted eugenics for cleansing the human race, but she also endorsed abortion as a legitimate method of birth control.

Sanger announced in 1914 what she called the “Rebel Woman Claim,” which included the “Right to be an unmarried mother,” the “Right to create,” and the “Right to destroy.” She was more explicit in a 16-page pamphlet first published in 1914 called “Family Limitation.” For women who suspected that conception had occurred, Sanger recommended, “drinking quinine—a dangerous prescription, which can lead to renal failure—to prevent the ovum from making its nest in the lining of the womb.” But if that fails, “then the only remedy is an abortion.”

In the same publication, Sanger tells readers, “When once one has been convinced that an abortion is necessary, do not indulge in medicines of any kind. They only weaken the system and require much greater length of time to recuperate. Never allow a pregnancy to run over a month. If you are going to have an abortion, make up your mind to it in the first stages, and have it done. On the other hand, there is often a feeling of the strongest desire to continue with the pregnancy. It is for each woman to decide this for herself but act at once, whatever way you decide.”

Three decades later in 1943, the Birth Control Federation of America, a successor organization to Sanger’s original American Birth Control League, became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. But the name change did not alter its eugenicist agenda.

A 1943 Planned Parenthood list of goals stated the group’s intent to “foster selective pregnancy…and…seek to offer the eugenically unsound means to avoid bringing offspring into the world who would become social liabilities.”

In 1945, another similar outline of Planned Parenthood goals read, in part, “The weak and defective compose an alarming proportion of our present population.” The proposed solution was “providing reliable contraceptive advice for those who, because of disease, defectiveness or deficiency, are unfitted to bear children.”

So what bearing do the misguided words of an unscrupulous nurse who passed on 50 years ago have on our fight to end abortion in America today? More than many people realize.

One of the many offshoots of Sanger’s contraception campaign was what she termed “The Negro Project.” Its stated goal was to bring contraception to black women. However, Sanger’s real motives behind this campaign are expressed in her nefarious assessment of the African-American community: “Colored people are like human weeds and are to be exterminated.”

In fact, as Sanger’s organization transitioned to Planned Parenthood, the effort to “reach” black communities intensified.

Today, 80 percent of all Planned Parenthood clinics are established within black and minority communities.

Consider the fact that African Americans make up just 12.6 percent of the U.S. population, according to the most recent census, yet black women account for 35.4 percent of abortions. That’s more than double their percentage of the population! In New York City, more black babies are aborted each year than born.

These ghastly statistics should not surprise us considering the racist origins of Margaret Sanger and her American Birth Control League. Her dream of cleansing society of so-called “human weeds” is being realized on our watch.

And yet, when leaders dare to broach the topic of Planned Parenthood and its ties to Margaret Sanger’s racist beliefs, they are mocked—even demonized.

Most recently, I heard an interview with U.S. presidential candidate Ben Carson, who is African American. First, he asserted that “the number one cause of death for black people is abortion.” Predictably, the abortion-promoting media blew up over this statement, accusing Carson of fabricating numbers to fit his agenda. Sadly, Carson is correct.

For all we hear about Black Lives Matter and the tragic scourge of black homicides in our inner cities, we hear next to nothing about the estimated 2,000 preborn black babies who are lost every day to abortion.

Carson went on to comment specifically about Sanger’s intention to rid the world of black people:

I encourage people to go and read about Margaret Sanger and go and read about the beginnings of this organization so that you know what you’re dealing with… One of the reasons you find most of their clinics in black neighborhoods is so that you can find ways to control that population.

Ben Carson isn’t the only presidential contender to have made the news by calling out Sanger for her racist roots.

Carly Fiorina, while speaking to a crowd at the Iowa State Fair, restated her pro-life beliefs and added, “You need to go look and understand the foundation of Planned Parenthood, which from its very inception, targeted poor, African-American and Hispanic women. There are more African-American lives aborted in New York City every year than are born alive,” continued Fiorina. “That…is not right.”

I am encouraged that after decades of silence, the vile, racist history of Planned Parenthood is finally being exposed by our nation’s leaders. And in the wake of these undercover videos, I have never been more optimistic that we can finally end abortion in America.

But it’s going to take more than just defunding Planned Parenthood.

We must join together in providing a real, life-affirming alternative for women and men who face crisis pregnancies.

Online for Life is leading that charge. Since 2010, we’ve been reaching pregnant mothers in crisis who search the Internet for information about abortion so we can connect them with nearby life-affirming pregnancy centers where they can choose life for their preborn children. We even own and operate two women’s care clinics—one in Grapevine, Texas, and the other in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Our network of pregnancy centers and our own women’s care clinics are wonderful caregivers, often linking arms with the mother and her family for weeks and months after the baby is born to make sure both the family and the child are being properly cared for.

To date, Online for Life, has helped rescue more than 3,361 babies from abortion. By providing better care in a safer environment, we can make sure women and men facing crisis pregnancies across our nation have unmatched support.

With your help, we can undo the scourge of abortion that people like Margaret Sanger have inflicted upon our country, and we can end the horror of abortion in America.